Host: You have I should say perhaps modern and progressive views on a lot of topics including on gender and I wondered if you could say a little bit more about that?
Kalu Rinpoche: I would not say “modern”, I would say just being practical and pragmatic. I think that is very important, because being a Buddhist means having a little bit of science, having a little bit of logic, having a little bit of wisdom, having a little bit of human ethical value. Not the perfect conditions of course, but just a little bit of these elements together defines you as a Buddhist believer or Buddhist practitioner. That is my understanding.
And, from my also understanding, how do you call it, the chairman of the Bhutanese LGBTQ and so on, and they asked me to support them and etc. Then I said “well, in Buddhism, we do not have this idea of women should be less and men should be more”. Like the previous Kalu Rinpoche in the 1970s, he was the first Buddhist figure who established the three-year retreat centers for men and women in 1974. Then we work with all the different nationalities over the last 40 years, and also the last 15/16 years of my responsibility, I engage with so different background cultural background, and different individuals as well.
The most important is a human quality, and if you do not have a human quality then you are pretty much not useful to yourself or to others and I think it is far more important.
Buddhist point of view is all about finding your own happiness beyond the illusionary mind and not the illusionary happiness but beyond the illusionary mind happiness. That is the absolute goal of the Buddhadharma. As long as you walk towards that path and the rest of it you can keep it little bit relaxed and less judgmental.
The last thing that it should come from the Buddhist point of view is to telling you how to live your life. The world is already full of suffering and lot of struggle and lot of challenges, then the last thing you need is a religious organization telling you how to think and how to live. That is not what we need. What we need is a more solution, more middle path, and more sense of deeper reflection in oneself, and that is important.
Conference on “The Legacy of the 14th Dalai Lama” – University of Westminster, 25 October 2025 (10′ 35”)
Buddhism in the Himalayas and the Dalai Lama
Moderator: Professor Nitasha Kaul (University of Westminster)
Kalu Rinpoche, Shangpa Kagyu Lineage Holder of Tibetan Buddhism
To be continued…
Comments are closed.